Workshop on International Law, Natural Resources and Sustainable
Development
Sustainable Development, Chemicals and the Protection of Natural Resources in the
Developing World
Sharron McEldowney
School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster
The chemical industry has undergone significant change and development over the last 40
years both in economic terms and geographical distribution. In the 1970s it was
concentrated in the highly industrialised countries of Europe, North America and Japan with
a worth of roughly £110 billion. Today, Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa
(BRIICS) are responsible for 28% of global chemical production with China standing as the
largest chemical producer in the world. In 2010 the manufacture of chemicals was valued
between £ 2 to 2.5 trillion. Chemicals in the market place have also diversified significantly
over the past decades. Under, the EU’s regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation,
Authoritarian and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) something in the order of 140,000
chemicals were pre-registered in 2008. Although this may be something of an over estimate,
it provides an indication of the multiplicity of chemicals, each with different properties and
behaviour in the environment, different toxic impacts on humans and natural systems and
often present in complex and interacting mixtures.
The history of international agreements on the chemical industry finds it basis in the 1970’s
under Principle 22 of the Stockholm Declaration that focused on transboundary harm from
pollution. Subsequently, as a specific response to the movement of hazardous waste from
the industrialised west to Africa the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal came into force in 1992. Chemicals
since have found their place in international agreements built on sustainable development.
Agenda 21 of Earth Summit (1992) includes two chapters on the management of chemicals
and waste and gave rise to the 1993 Rotterdam Convention on trade in dangerous
chemicals, with currently 43 chemicals listed, and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs) (2004), which requires the restriction or elimination of POPs listed
under the convention. This year a further chemical convention has been negotiated. The
aptly named Minamata Convention on Mercury has been agreed by 140 states. Important as
these agreements are they cover only a small fraction of the chemicals manufactured and
traded across the world. They do not substantially address the control of chemicals in
sustainable economies with adequate local protection of the environment and human
health. More significant for this was the World Summit on Sustainable Development where
there was agreement over a goal for sound chemical management by 2020. This did not
produce a legal binding agreement but a policy framework a Strategic Approach to
International Chemicals Management (SAICM) instead. In this paper it will be argued that
rather than the identification of individual chemicals or even groups of chemicals for
international action it is the implementation of sound chemical management in a
competitive market place that will provide appropriate protection and a chemical industry
worthy of sustainable economies. It is argued that sustainable development and the
protection of natural resources and human health require chemicals to be given higher
priority on the international agenda with a legally binding treaty for chemical management
incorporating prevention and precaution, and techniques such as substitution, minimization
and other life cycle approaches. Chemicals have a potential for profound and long-term
impacts on natural resources, on humans and on future generations. The risks and hazards
from chemicals should not be neglected on the international stage.